69. The destination of the seventy.  It is customary to think of them as sent to the various cities of Perea (see AndLOL 381-383).  Were it not for the words “whither he himself was about to come” (Lk. x.  I), it would be natural to conclude that they were sent E to Gerasa and Philadelphia, and S to the regions of the Dead Sea.  If John’s account is accepted, Jesus spent not a little time of the interval between his departure from Galilee and his final arrival in Bethany in and near Jerusalem.  It may be that after the withdrawal from the Dedication he went far into the Perean districts.  But John x. 40 is against it.  The question must be left unanswered.  The messengers may have visited places in all parts of Palestine.

VI

The Controversies of the Last Week

70.  See GilbertLJ 311-335; WeissLX III. 224-270; AndLOL 421-450; KeimJN V. 65-275; BeysLJ II. 422-434; EdersLJM II. 363-478; SandayHastBD II 632f.

71. The supper at Bethany.  John is definite, “six days before the passover” (xii.  I).  Synoptists place it after the day of controversy, on the Wednesday preceding the Passover (Mk. xiv.  I, 3-9; Mt. xxvi. 2, 6-13).  John is probably correct.  The rebuke of Judas (Jn. xii. 4-8) was probably associated in the thought of the disciples with his later treachery; consequently the synoptists report the plot of Judas and this supper in close connection.

72. The Messianic entry into Jerusalem is regarded by Reville as a surrender by Jesus of his lofty Messianic ideal in response to the temptation to seek a popular following.  Keim with finer insight says, “Even if it had certainly been his wish to bring the kingdom of heaven near in Jerusalem quietly and gradually, and with a healthy mental progress, as in Galilee, yet ... in the face of the irritability of his opponents, in the face of the powerful means at their disposal of crushing him ... there remained but one chance,—­reckless publicity, the conquest of the partially prepared nation by means, not of force, but of idea....  He came staking his life upon the venture, but also believing that God must finish his work through life or death” (JN V. 100f.).

73. The question about the resurrection was probably a familiar Sadducean problem with which they made merry at the expense of the scribes.  On the resurrection in Jewish thought see Charles, Eschatology, Hebrew, Jewish, and Christian, by index.  For the scepticism of the Sadducees see also Ac. xxiii. 8; Jos.  Wars, ii, 8. 14.

74.  On the “great commandment” see EdersLJM II. 403 ff.

75.  The eschatological discourse presents serious exegetical difficulties.  Many cut the knot by assuming that Mk. xiii. and ||s contain a little Jewish apocalypse written shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem, which has been blended with genuine predictions of Jesus concerning his second coming.  See Charles, Eschatology, 323-. 329; WendtLJ I. 9-21; HoltzmannNtTH I. 325 ff.; and Bruce’s criticism in Expos.  Gk.  Test.  I. 287f., also Sanday’s note in HastBD II. 635f.